KNL: 39. Synode - Vorbereitungen

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39. Synode des Kyodan - General Assembly

Report from 6th Executive Council - July 7-8

Executive Council Prepares for Upcoming General AssemblyOct 28,2014

The sixth Executive Council meeting of the present biennial general assembly period took place on July 7 and 8. As this was the last Executive Council meeting prior to the upcoming 39th General Assembly (2014), the meeting was extended for an extra two hours, ending at 5 p.m. Due to the temporary relocation of the office and two boards of the Kyodan to a site with no space for such gatherings, the meeting was held at the newly built Fujimicho Church.Following the opening worship service, led by council member Sugawara Tsutomu, General Secretary Nagasaki Tetsuo gave a report that included the following items. The national fundraising campaign for the East Japan Disaster has now reached 880 million yen. A volunteer group from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan arrived in Japan the very day of the Executive Council meeting. The number of foreign participants at the International Conference on the East Japan Disaster was over 70, and the conference as a whole prepared a proclamation. The National Conference for Mutual Exchange among Buraku Liberation Activists was held in the Aizu city of Fukushima at the Wakamatsu Sakaemachi Church, June 9-11, with 230 participants. The 30th anniversary of the signing of the mission agreement between the Kyodan and the Korean Christian Church in Japan will be celebrated at a special meeting to be held in September.Executive Secretary for Ecumenical Ministries Kato Makoto reported on the official visit by the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Dr. Olav Tveit. He was invited by Tohoku District to visit the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster area and has accepted. (Unfortunately, this trip had to be postponed due to his sudden illness and surgery.)

It has been over 40 years since the construction of the Japan Christian Center in which the Kyodan General Office, the Board of Publications, and the Board of Pensions were located, and the building falls woefully short of today’s earthquake resistance standards. Moderator Ishibashi Hideo’s report on the successful move of the general office to a temporary location was followed by a lengthy discussion on future options for the present building. The Japan Christian Center building is jointly owned by the Kyodan and nine other organizations, which complicates the matter. The Kyodan has adopted a plan to spend a total of 590 million yen for a thorough retrofitting of the building and equipment, and this will serve as the basis for negotiations at the building management committee of the ten owners.

Vice-moderator Ito Mizuo gave a report on the International Conference on the East Japan Disaster, held in Sendai from March 11 to 14, for which approximately 80 participants from overseas joined 170 from within Japan. The proclamation issued by the conference was officially endorsed by the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity at its June committee meeting in Germany and will be presented as an agenda item at its general assembly in November. As EMS General Secretary Juergen Reichel and Secretary Lutz Drescher, along with two others, were able to stop by during the Executive Council meeting, Moderator Ishibashi was able to formally greet them and express the gratitude of the Kyodan for their contributions to the East Japan Disaster relief fund. (Tr. TB)—Kato Makoto, executive secretary